Thread: Treadling instructions for beginners

Originally Posted by irishrose

When I get my Redeye back together, I will be ready for this. My Leader doesn't treadle easily enough.

Have you oiled everything on your treadle stand? Is the belt too short? Just asking as I had these problems when I first got my straight leg Singer irons, I'd missed oiling the treadle plate.
Sharon W.
2 Singer red eyes

Thanks for sharing this. I saved it for later. I have an Eldredge treadle but have not sewn on it yet.But I finally got it moved into the sewing room and hope to give it a try soon.

Thank you for posting this, I bookmarked it as well. I was given an 1889 Singer 27 about a year ago. She needs some work and I'm now motivated to get it done.

I am a brand new treadler! I was afraid that I would never get the hang of it but right now I am in the middle of a quilt that I will be proud to say I did completely on the treadle!!! I had cleaned and oiled the treadle machine and irons throughly before using it. Just recently I reoiled it with Tri-Flow Sewing machine oil (bought at Sew-Classic.com) and it made a tremendous difference. I think that it is much easier to "peddle" now. I have to say that I am having a great time with my 1915 Singer 15-30.

Just some things to look at when you are doing the maintenance on a treadle.

>Start with the treadle plate pivots. Make sure they are clean of old grease, not too loose or too tight. Then grease them.
>Then take the pitman rod apart at the bottom. In the big nut that fits into the treadle plate I've seen a spring loaded plunger in the bottom. This part allows you to keep tension on the pitman shaft without having to crank it down way too tight. Make sure it's clean and free then grease it.
Then adjust it so there is no movement between the shaft and plate, but no binding either.
>Big wheel pivots. Check them as you did the treadle plate. Adjust them so the wheel has some side to side movement, but not too much. Grease them.
>Big wheel crank bearings. Clean them and grease them.

For the grease I use a high shear chassis lube. Yes it's thick. Yes it's messy if your not careful. Yes, if you use the treadle a lot you'll have to relube it occasionally. It may fly in the face of what you've read, but these points on the treadle mechanism are high friction points. Just oiling them is not enough in my opinion.

My #2 Singer 66 treadle is so easy to treadle I can run it as fast as some of our electric machines. It can be started by foot pressure on the treadle plate most of the time.

My #1 Singer 66 treadle is also easy to treadle, but it wants to stall and you have to coax it with the hand wheel to get it started. I'm working on it. I think it's the pitman shaft area that's the problem.

Joe